Landscape Escape: A Tip of the Cap to the Mushroom

I always suspected that I'd make a good hermit.  And now I know I was right!  This pic marks the first time I stepped outside my house in almost a month.  Which is another way of saying that I'm in my element indoors -- and that pandemic time is painting time.  I so enjoyed making this little landscape.  And although it isn't the promised Tastykake Lake (art projects never turn out the way we think they will, do they?), I like -- no, love -- it anyway.  Because it's colorful and shows that I'm young at heart.  And that I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty.

Still, my best bud is fashion, and it wouldn't be a Trove post without a sartorial spotlight.  I ordered this trio of candy-striped tops from J. C. Penney's last year and never ever wore them.  A tragedy, I know, right up there with the tp shortage and climate change.  But I've had the shoes much longer and wear them a lot, so I suppose there's hope for the tops.  And also for the polar ice caps.    

As for this Save Room for Shrooms Necklace, it couldn't be simpler - no charms, no tiers, no stones, no glue.  And yet I think it's still a stunner.  Must be the mushrooms!

Save Room for Shrooms Necklace

I guess the, ahem, morel of this story is that playing outside is overrated.  And that even the most mundane of mushrooms are magical.

Good thing we can soak them in from our windows.  Or better yet, while killing at Super Mario Brothers.

See you on the other side, Princess Toadstool.

Paint Party Hearty: Sweet Eats

Last spring, my sister asked me to enter an art show with her.  I'd been out of the painting game for a while and didn't have so much as a tube of burnt umber, so I hit Michaels for the essentials.  But even with a restocked arsenal, I didn't want to switch gears from making jewelry.  I still participated in the show; I just used paintings I'd made a long time ago.  Yet the pile of new paints and canvasses haunted me the following summer, fall, and winter until one day I said, "Enough!  No paint will dry up on my watch!"  So I hunkered down in my cozy craft room and proceeded to bust out my brushes.  The above not-quite-symmetrical, day-glo, sugar-fueled dreamscape was the result.  The husband asked if the two suns in the sky looking down at the ice cream were Ben and Jerry.  It wasn't without a little regret that I admitted this wasn't the case.  I didn't have a plan in mind when I was painting, but the finished product looks like the packaging for a Japanese board game.  Which is to say, wonderful.  I had so much fun making it!  I took my time, working on it on and off for two weeks while I watched TV.  I forgot how zen painting can be, how peaceful yet satisfying it is to cover white space with color to create something new.

I'm not the only painter in my household.  You may recall that the husband paints houses.  And he's got the brushes to prove it. 
 

Clearly, he too has whimsy and is a collector of colorful things.  He might not like that I said he has whimsy, though.  It doesn't sound very manly.  Then again, earlier today when we were in Lowe's, he was drooling over a mitre saw.  So, maybe mentioning that makes up for it.

Next time, I'll paint frosting-topped pine trees around a blue blob and call it Tastykake Lake.  Because I live closer to Pennsylvania than Vermont and grew up on Butterscotch Krimpets instead of Chunky Monkey.

Not that I'm opposed to painting a monkey swinging from a Red Vine. I'd call it Snack Attack.

Good thing I have six more canvases.

They're Not All Pearls

Purple Paradise Necklace

Top: JCPenney

Skirt: Kohl's

Cardigan: Mossimo, Target

Shoes: Candie's, Kohl's

Bag: Krystala Creations, Etsy

Black Cherry Necklace

Top: Candie's, Kohl's

Camisole: Casual Corner

Skirt: Worthington, JCPenney

Shoes: Miss Bisou, JCPenney

Bag: Xhilaration, Target 

Bashful Blossoms Necklace

Top: Marshalls

Skirt: Forever 21

Shoes: Worthington, JCPenney

Bag: B Fabulous

So said Thomas Haden Church's Mr. Griffith (otherwise known as the mechanic from "Wings"), to Emma Stone's Olive in Easy A.  Well, almost.  This is what he actually said, in reference to kids' obsession with social networking: 

"I don't know what your generation's fascination is with documenting your every thought . . . but I can assure you, they're not all diamonds. "Roman is having an OK day, and bought a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof." Who gives a rat's ass?" '

Predictably, this was Olive's reply: 

"He got a Coke Zero AGAIN? Ah, that Roman. Incorrigible."

I know all this because I was re-watching Easy A on TBS or FX or some such channel recently while crafting.  Unlike the musings of teenagers, these necklaces are all pearls.  Well, all fake pearls.  But they're authentically fun in their fakeness, and when it comes to gemstones, aren't those the best kind?  I was inspired to make the Purple Passion and Bashful Blossoms necklaces by this decorative box that once housed note cards:

That said, I'm getting a real kick out of turning trash into the proverbial treasure.  Today I had a Tastykake lemon pie (top that, Roman!), so you can expect to see a lemon-licious pendant in the near future.

Nobody Bakes a Cake as Tasty as a Tastykake

If you're local, then you understand the wonder that is the Tastykake. The other day the bf ran into Wawa to get us a snack and emerged with this Tastykake butterscotch krimpet Christmas tree ornament. (Rest assured; he got the snacks also. It was Krimpets. What else?) I turned the box over in my hands, transfixed by the glittery plastic butterscotch frosting. I'll probably keep this thing dangling from something all year long. And why not? There's nothing Christmasy about a krimpet. If anything, it's the kind of kitschy knickknack made for year-round display. (By the way, why is it that butterscotch is so delicious? I mean, it sounds like it would be disgusting.) The back of the ornament box offered up the origin of the krimpet, a tale so compelling that I can't help but share it here with you now:

"The 1920s roared through America creating optimism and excitement. For Tastykake, this meant a new bakery in Philadelphia's Hunting Park section in 1922 and the birth of a Tastykake icon . . . the Butterscotch Krimpet.

Krimpets came about because Tastykake bakers were very fussy, insisting on using only the freshest ingredients. When held in the middle, the cakes fell apart because they were so fresh! Finally, one baker said, "Why don't we bake the cake so it will be easier to hold? Let's take the baking tin and 'krimp it.'" Thus, in 1927, the Butterscotch Krimpet was born . . . and the rest, as they say, is history."

Cute, huh? You gotta love that plug about using "only the freshest ingredients." But I can't poke too much fun. Now, if only I could get my hands on some tiny krimpets charms to make some jewelry . . .